Morocco in 2006

710,850 sq km (274,461 sq mi), including the 252,120-sq-km (97,344-sq-mi) area of the disputed Western Sahara annexation

Population

(2006 est.): 30,646,000, of which Western Sahara 372,000 (excluding 165,000 Saharawi refugees living near Tindouf, Alg., from 1975)

Capital:

Rabat

Head of state and government:

King Muhammad VI, assisted by Prime Minister Driss Jettou

Morocco’s free-trade agreement with the United States came into force in January 2006. Virtually all tariffs would disappear, although cereals would continue to be protected. A similar long-delayed free-trade agreement was signed in July with Egypt, Tunisia, and Jordan. Morocco’s foreign relations improved in 2006; links with the U.S. were reinforced, and new commercial ties were established with China. NATO held its first meeting in an Arab country, in Rabat, in April. That month UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan reluctantly abandoned his support for a referendum for self-determination in the Western Sahara and proposed instead direct negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario Front. Despite opposition from Algeria and the Polisario Front, the proposal was endorsed by the United States, France, and Spain. Morocco repeated its offer of autonomy status for the territory but rejected independence.

The domestic front was marked by two major concerns—the growing strength of the country’s Islamist movements and the future status of the monarchy. The moderate Islamist party, the Justice and Development Party (PJD), was expected to increase its vote in the 2007 legislative elections and thereby become the largest party in the legislature. This prompted its semilegal rival, Justice and Charity, to become more active; in May it organized a series of public meetings around the country. The government, in turn, arrested 500 Justice and Charity members on the grounds that the party sought the violent overthrow of the monarchy. Those arrested were released a few days later. Although the movement maintained that it was nonviolent, its leader, Sheikh Abdessalam Yassine, announced that 2006 would be the year of qawma (“revolt”), and his daughter expressly called for the removal of the monarchy, although her trial for this offense in 2005 had been repeatedly postponed.

Government vigilance over threats to the political system was underlined in September with the arrest of 56 people, including 5 soldiers and 2 policemen, all members of Jamaʾat al-Ansar al-Mahdi, a clandestine pro-al-Qaeda group. The government claimed that 50 extremist groups involving 2,000 persons had been dissolved since the Casablanca massacres in May 2003, but observers suspected that the government wanted to undermine popular support for the PJD prior to the elections. The year was marked by concerns that Morocco’s political liberalization had stalled. Nevertheless, political parties aired suggestions for subordinating the judiciary, the armed forces, and the administration to the legislature rather than to the monarchy. The monarchy’s sacrosanct position, as defined by article 19 of the constitution, was also questioned.

The palace, meanwhile, used the alleged extremists as an excuse to reorder its security structures. Among other changes, Gen. Hamidou Laanigri, head of security, was replaced by a civilian. The government also decided to end conscription and to restructure the military security system. Economic indicators were encouraging, owing partly to a bumper harvest. Real GDP growth was set at 7.3% and inflation at 3.7%, owing partially to high oil prices. Price liberalization was delayed, despite proposals in July to remove subsidies. In July, Prime Minister Driss Jettou claimed that illiteracy had fallen from 55% in 1998 to 40% in 2006.

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